Illustrative quotations relating to symptom attribution, a subtheme of theme 1— initial appraisal of symptoms
| Initial appraisal of symptoms | |
| Diet and lifestyle |
‘It comes and goes, it must be something that I eat and it just doesn’t agree with me’ (F, 60–69 years, 13–26 weeks, non-cancer) ‘I think it’s the picking up, it’s the bending that does it a lot with my job as well, ‘cos I lift heavy (clothing) all day, and I’m putting them over people and then bending and sitting down’ (F, 40–59 years, regular attender to GP, cancer) |
| Existing gastrointestinal conditions | ‘I’ve always suffered with what’s it called, you know, reflux, over the years, sometimes I could take some indigestion remedy and that Gaviscon thing and it’d calm down’ (F, 40–49 years, <2 weeks, non-cancer) |
| Other medical conditions, side effects of medication |
‘At first I started putting it down to the diabetic pills, I thought ‘Well it’s probably because I’ve changed those’, you know, and this Pioglitazone, I kept thinking ‘Well it’s that’ (F 60–69 years, 2–4 weeks, cancer) ‘I’ve had this sort of tiredness and a little bit of discomfort on and off for a time, I thought it was possibly diabetes…it kept on… and we thought was perhaps as a result of some of the medication I was taking for other things.’ (M, 70–79 years, 13–26 weeks, cancer) |